Next In Line With WWE

World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) stands as one of the biggest sports media entities in the world, and last week, three teams under the University of Maryland athletics banner received an NIL pitch that would not only feature unparalleled experiences as a student-athlete, but also a potential life-changing career opportunity with the company.

Maryland’s volleyball, women’s basketball and wrestling programs had the chance to learn about the worldwide sports entertainment enterprise and how it hopes to establish early connections with talented student-athletes through NIL. With WWE’s Next In Line NIL , interested Terps and student-athletes from other schools have the opportunity to learn about the professional wrestling business while networking with the company. Once a student-athlete finishes their collegiate athletic career, they have the exclusive chance to compete for a WWE developmental contract.

The company launched itself into the NIL realm in late 2021 and have already signed three classes worth of high-level college stars who started the pathway to joining the business. After many years of recruiting established performers on the independent wrestling scene, the company wanted to switch gears, making an intentional effort to recruit college athletes while they were still competing.

“What we're trying to do is establish relationships with athletes around the world while they're still in school,” a WWE representative said. “And the reason being is that we have found that at the top of our roster right now, we have a slew of former college athletes who had a more difficult road to get to WWE.”

WWE has an established connection with college athletes, with top stars such as current Undisputed WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns (Georgia Tech), 10-time WWE Champion Brock Lesnar (Minnesota) and 14-time WWE Women’s Champion Charlotte (Appalachian State) headlining weekly shows and premium live events on a consistent basis. And with Next In Line, the WWE has created a more established pipeline between athletics departments, student-athletes and the company.

On the WWE’s end, its aim is to find college athletes who might slip through the cracks at the professional level of their sport. With many transferable skills from competing in college athletics such as athleticism, a strong work ethic and a competitive edge, the WWE hopes to give student-athletes a chance to put their talents to good use in the squared circle.

“If there's 98 or 99% of these athletes around the country that are never going to play a down of football or compete in another hurdling event, we know they have that competitive edge to them and maybe they would be a good fit for us,” a WWE representative said. “So we just realized that the composition of our roster is what it is with former athletes. There's so many current athletes out there that are looking for the next step in their career and their lives and we have a wonderful opportunity if we find synergies among them.”

In the talent search process, WWE isn’t just looking for the most popular players on each team or the most talented. Rather, they are looking for athletes who have the charisma and marketability to talk to a sold-out arena or stadium and garner organic fan support.

“To use football for an example, you can look at any program in the country, and I'm sure you'll find hundreds and hundreds of kids who would look like they'd be good wrestlers, just based on physique,” a WWE representative said. “But what we talk about often in our campus presentation is that being athletic is half the battle. Really the other half is do you have that charisma? Do you have the passion? Can you get on a mic? Can we put a microphone on you in your hand and put you in a stadium full of 30-40,000 people and you can cut a promo?”

Maryland was the fifth stop on WWE’s 2023 Campus Rush, where Superstars have visited and pitched to other Division I schools such as Texas, Wisconsin, Washington and Missouri. 

Across a trio of sessions on Tuesday and Wednesday, WWE sought to add more talent to that pipeline from Maryland. Former Maryland running back Tehuti Miles, who now wrestles on Friday Night Smackdown as Ashante ‘Thee’ Adonis, and former Syracuse offensive lineman Omari Palmer, who competes on Monday Night Raw under the ring name Odyssey Jones, spoke to Maryland student-athletes about life as a WWE Superstar and the opportunities available through Next In Line.

For Adonis, he was excited to make his return to College Park to find the next Maryland athlete to join him on the WWE roster. He had the chance to talk with the Terps’ wrestling team in Glazer Auditorium, the same room he used to attend meetings in when he played football from 2013-16.

“My hotel room’s view is literally the whole campus, so I’m sitting there just reminiscing about everything,” Adonis said. “I’ve spent all four years in this exact room we’re in right now, having meetings here. It’s just an amazing feeling to be back here and just see how the school has developed.”

During the session, Adonis and Jones spoke candidly about their experiences as Superstars and their roads through developmental to WWE’s main roster. Alongside Morgan Belvedere from WWE’s talent development staff, the three spoke about all of the different opportunities through which Superstars can build their platforms through social and traditional media. After running down what the company structure looks like, the teams then had an opportunity to cut a wrestling promo, dishing on whatever came to mind. 

With three weekly television shows with Monday Night Raw and Friday Night Smackdown, along with NXT on Tuesday nights, Superstars have many opportunities to get in front of a live audience and connect with fans. On social media, the WWE says that it has the second-most social media followers of any sports organization across all platforms. And through other promotion opportunities through media appearances, video games and merchandise, the company offers a variety of ways for Superstars to gain notoriety quickly.

However, before college athletes will ever step foot between the ropes, they will be able to establish a relationship with the WWE through NIL experiences. To the company, it’s not simply a transactional relationship, but rather a personal relationship where the WWE has the opportunity to show student-athletes the nitty gritty of life in the industry.

“A lot of NIL deals are often transactional,” a WWE representative said. “We’re not going into our NIL agreement saying, ‘You need to do X, Y and Z in order to fulfill a contract.’ Our aim in this is to get to know the athletes.”

In WWE’s non-exclusive NIL agreement, student-athletes have an open door to pursue deals with other brands while establishing a connection with the WWE. Through experiences and other networking opportunities, the WWE wants to show the business through multiple lenses, showing off the glitz and glamor of the finished product while also taking college athletes to the starting point of their potential WWE journey.

“We want you to come out to a Smackdown or Raw when we're in your city,” a WWE representative said. “We want to bring you backstage and introduce you to (chief content officer) Triple H. We want to show you what backstage it looks like at a wrestling show. When we go to WrestleMania, we'd love you to come out with your family and stay with us in a suite and we’ll show you a good time. And then also while you’re still in school and under an NIL deal, we'd love to bring you down to our state-of-the-art Performance Center in Orlando. We'd love to bring you down and show you what it means to become a Superstar.”

Ultimately, the journey to becoming a full-time WWE Superstar is a slow build for NIL. College athletes will not try out for the company until they’ve completed their eligibility, and they won’t debut on TV until they have had months of training and are ready for the spotlight.

“We never want to put athletes out there unprepared,” Belvedere said to the wrestling team. “It is a transition from amateur wrestling to the WWE. We want to make sure you guys are 100% prepared.”

Since the introduction of the Next In Line program, the WWE has seen its NIL athletes try out, go through training in developmental and ready to go in NXT, the organization’s developmental brand. Former NCAA wrestling heavyweight champion and Olympic gold medalist Gable Steveson from the University of Minnesota was the first NIL signee for the company and made two appearances at WrestleMania 38 before joining NXT, where he wrestled his first match at a premium live event in July 2023.

Aside from Steveson, former Northwestern defensive lineman Joe Spivak earned an NIL with WWE, and after going through training and wrestling untelevised matches, Spivak made his NXT debut as Tank Ledger, where he now competes on the tag-team scene.

Superstars such as Ledger and Steveson are just the first of many college athletes who have the opportunity to network with the WWE throughout college, gain the inside edge for a tryout with the company and work their way up from developmental until they are on The Grandest Stage of Them All at WrestleMania.

And through the WWE’s visit to College Park, some current Maryland athletes could be among the Superstars on the biggest platform of sports entertainment.